Os desenvolvimentos da Iconografia franciscana entre Europa e Brasil, o caso do frontispício da igreja de São Francisco de Assis em São João del Rei, MG

Abstract

The Church of São Francisco de Assis de São João del-Rei is an iconic building of Brazilian architecture and colonial art. Its exemplarity lies in its complex system of architectural composition and especially in the richness of its decorative, internal and external elements. The presence of two expressive sets of stone carving provides the possibility of new analyzes, even in the context of the diversified historiographic approach that surrounds this building. From the study of the portal and the pediment, we sought to investigate the iconographic sources used for the elaboration of the decoration of the frontispiece. For this, we seek to establish the foundations of Franciscan iconography, exploring its European origins and its transits, identifying the Franciscan iconographic program developed in the Italian peninsula, especially after the Counter-Reformation, as well as the Franciscan presence, and its iconographic programs, in the Portuguese Empire. We also aimed to study the presence of the Franciscans in Brazil and especially in Minas Gerais, from a bibliographic review of the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi of São João del-Rei, from the constitution of the Venerable Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi and the construction of its primitive chapel, till the replacement of the old chapel and the construction of the current church. From the analysis of the frontispiece carving, we sought to identify the possible iconographic sources, the challenges of translating the engravings for the stone carving, exploring the relationships of the iconographic program of portal and pediment with the engraved sources. We also sought to understand which were the theological and political functions of the iconographic representations found there.